Originally Posted by
bigbossman
Those look like cable stand-offs for STI or Ergo shifting cables. They would solves the issue of cable housing chaffing the paint on the head tube, which is a common problem with modern shifter setups.
This. It's basically a cable stand-off guide to keep the shifter cables from rubbing against the head tube paint.
In fact, many newer framesets built from the get-go for integrated brake/shifters don't have downtube shifter bosses, but have head tube braze-ons with integral barrell adjusters like this one from Ellis Cycles (Dave Wages).
